Sure, George W. Bush impersonators’ commercials appearances were good for a laugh, but they probably didn’t do a terribly good job of selling the product in question. With one of the most popular presidents in decades, what better time to put the executive branch to work in advertising? That’s just what the entries in Best [...]

Words, as any number of after-school specials will tell you, can hurt (but they can also heal, aw…). Appropriately, then, it’s crucial to acknowledge and address the damage that terms like “disability” and “handicap” can cause, and the kind of subtle and not-so-subtle implications they can convey. Even the term “disability,” though less problematic than [...]

In about two weeks, President Barack Obama will toss out his first opening pitch since moving into the White House (as a Senator he once threw the opening pitch at a White Sox game). The pitch will kick off the MLB All-Star Game, which is happening in St. Louis this year. To get us psyched, [...]

Who cares what Obama’s presidential portrait will look like? Illustrator Alexander Barrett has beaten the Warhol-hugging prez to the punch with his spectacularly Warholian series of images portraying All 44 U.S. Presidents’ Portraits as Pandas. Our favorite has got to be Pandaham Lincoln:

(via The Daily What)

Looking over Jezebel’s listicle of 20 Feminist TV Characters (thanks Dana!), we’re starting to think that there’s something to the TV format that makes intelligent, empowered female characters more interesting and compelling than, say, their movie counterparts. After all, the list is pretty impressive, including Maude Findlay from Maude, Murphy Brown, 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon, [...]

The 35th American President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was born 92 years ago today, which makes this the perfect occasion to count down memorable screen incarnations of the nation’s favorite playboy head of state and mysterious martyr. Enjoy John in all his forms and incarnations with our 7 Stately Screen Versions of JFK.
Clone High

Having him play [...]

In a recent synergistic extravaganza, the folks at Slate and one of their related publications Foreign Policy held an exhaustive list-making drill on international relations in film. It started with Stephen M. Walt’s list of 10 (including Casablanca, Dr. Strangelove and – gasp – Independence Day), followed by Daniel W. Drezner’s top 8 rebuttal (which [...]

When it became apparent that Arnold Schwarzenegger wouldn’t overturn the old “gotta be born in the U.S. to be the President of the U.S.” law, we were a little disappointed. Having been born outside the country as well, we were resigned to never becoming Prez. Then we realized that this was a blessing in disguise: [...]

Sure, advertising today gets away with a strange post-gender extremist sexism, but back in the day there was a kind of homey casualness to sexist advertising. This doesn’t make it okay, of course, hence Neatorama’s listicle of 10 Chauvinistic Vintage Ads, which features all manner of casual condescension and hot normative action.
Like the couple at [...]

It’s funny to remember that 50 years ago, mainstream American films couldn’t show married couples sharing a bed, or that at the time, a couple kissing in any pose not completely upright was basically screenwriter code for sex. We’ve come a long way, haven’t we? Future of Classic’s Tim Dirk suggests as much, with his [...]